Outline of libertarianism

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to libertarianism, a political philosophy that upholds liberty as its principal objective. As a result, libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and freedom of choice, emphasizing political freedom, voluntary association and the primacy of individual judgment.

Nature of libertarianism

Supports

Economic freedom – the freedom to receive the full value of one's labour, or to produce, trade and consume any goods and services acquired without the use of force, fraud or theft
Egalitarianism – the idea that all humans are equal in fundamental worth or social status
Individual responsibility – the idea that a person is responsible for their own actions and their own lives
Personal development – methods, skills and strategies by which individuals can effectively direct their own activities toward the achievement of objectives and includes goal setting, decision making, focusing, planning, scheduling, task tracking, self-evaluation, self-intervention, self-development and so on
Self-governance – the idea that a person or group are able to exercise all of the necessary functions of power without intervention from any authority which they cannot themselves alter
Self-ownership – the concept of property in one's own person, expressed as the moral or natural right of a person to be the exclusive controller of his or her own body and life
Voluntary association – a group of individuals who enter into an agreement as volunteers to form a body (or organization) to accomplish a purpose
LGBT rights

Rejects

Authoritarianism – a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority
Coercion – the practice of forcing another party to behave in an involuntary manner (whether through action or inaction) by use of threats or intimidation or some other form of pressure or force
Discrimination – a form of collectivism that involves treating people based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit
Imperialism – as defined by the Dictionary of Human Geography, it is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural and territorial relationship, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination"

Debates

Abortion
Anarcho-capitalism and minarchism and libertarian municipalism
Capital punishment
Employee–employer relationship vs. workers' self-management and worker cooperatives
Environmentalism
Foreign intervention
Free-market and laissez-faire capitalism vs. communism and socialism (including both free-market and laissez-faire socialism and market abolitionist, decentralized-planned economy)
Immigration
Inheritance
Intellectual property
Law
Objectivism
Political alliances
State
Wage labor vs. wage slavery

Branches and schools of libertarianism

Libertarianism has many overlapping schools of thought, all focused on smaller government and greater individual responsibility. As interpretations of the non-aggression principle vary, some libertarian schools of thought promote the total abolition of government while others promote a smaller government which does not initiate force. Some seek private ownership of all property and natural resources while others promote communal ownership of all natural resources and varying degrees of private property.

Origins of libertarianism

Libertarian theory and politics

Libertarian ideals

These are concepts which although not necessarily exclusive to libertarianism are significant in historical and modern libertarian circles.

Philosophers and economists who have influenced libertarianism

Anarchists

Émile Armand – one of the most influential individualist anarchists of the early 20th century
Mikhail Bakunin – one of the main theorists of collectivist anarchism and a major influence on the development of left-libertarianism
William Godwin – the first modern proponent of anarchism, whose political views are outlined in his book Political Justice
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon – the first self-described anarchist and founder of mutualism
Lysander Spooner – notable individualist anarchist and founder of the American Letter Mail Company
Max Stirner – founder of egoist anarchism
Benjamin Tucker – a leading theorist of individualist anarchism in the 19th century
Josiah Warren – the first known American anarchist and author of the first anarchist periodical The Peaceful Revolutionist

Economists

Frédéric Bastiat – 19th century creator of the concept of opportunity cost
Milton Friedman – Nobel Prize-winning monetarist economist, notable for his advocacy of economic deregulation and privatization
Robin Hahnel – modern participatory economics scholar and libertarian socialist
Friedrich Hayek – Nobel Prize-winning Austrian School economist, notable for his political work The Road to Serfdom
Elinor Ostrom – Nobel Prize-winning common pool resource theorist and environmentalist
Ludwig von Mises – philosopher, Austrian School economist, sociologist and classical liberal
Murray Rothbard – founder of anarcho-capitalism and a leading Austrian School economist
E. F. Schumacher – internationally influential British economist and statistician and author of Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered
Nassim Nicholas Taleb – statistician, philosopher and author of The Black Swan
Hans-Hermann Hoppe – developed extensive work on argumentation ethics

Objectivists

Ayn Rand – the creator of the philosophy of Objectivism
Leonard Peikoff – founder of the Ayn Rand Institute and Rand's designated intellectual heir

Others

Murray Bookchin – the founder of libertarian municipalism and a leading theorist of the social ecology movement
Noam Chomsky – pioneering linguist and social critic
Karl Hess – libertarian socialist and tax resistor
Robert Nozick – philosopher and author of Anarchy, State, and Utopia

David Hume – Scottish Enlightenment writer whose Treatise of Human Nature (Book 3) argued that rules of justice originated from many human actions, not rational calculation
Ron Paul – politician and 2012 presidential candidate
Henry David Thoreau – one of the leading philosophers of American transcendentalism and anarcho-pacifism
Robert Anton Wilson – radical author of The Illuminatus! Trilogy

External links

"Libertarianism". Encyclopædia Britannica.
"Libertarianism". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
"Libertarianism" entry by Bas van der Vossen in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, January 28, 2019

Websites

Foundation for Economic Education – one of the oldest libertarian organizations in the United States
The Humble Libertarian – a libertarian resource and index of libertarian websites
Libertarianism – a non-profit site for libertarianism

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